The Good Old Days
by CaedisBlednyj
Summary: Cordelia Jayne has finally caught her big break in the WWF. Now, at 20 years old, she's juggling her dream career, her family, and her love life. Can she keep up with the fast pace, or will she crack under the pressure and lose it all?
1. Prologue

Author's Disclaimer: This story is a complete work of fiction. I am changing history through the course of this story. I do not own the rights to any of the trademarks and/or names in this story. Any events/characters that I have made up bear no intentional resemblance to any real situation or person.

Prologue

_I went to my first WWF show when I was 13 years old to watch my brother's best friend in his first ever match. Jeff was three years older than me, so naturally, I'd had a MAJOR crush on him. I was sad when he lost to Razor Ramon, even though I knew it was scripted. I was so proud of him, I could have burst._

_Jeff and his older brother, Matt, were both at my house nearly every day of my life, as were their other friends, Shannon Moore and Greg Helms. They and my brother James were inseparable and never complained when I tagged along. I was always the referee in their backyard wrestling matches. _

_When I turned 15, they all threw me a huge party. By the end of the night, the only ones left awake we me and Jeff, watching scary movies, and eating popcorn. We started on opposite ends of the couch, but ended up inching closer to each other, so by the middle of the last movie in our marathon, we were practically sitting on top of each other._

"_You know, if we were sitting any closer together, we'd be one person." Jeff whispered._

_I smiled, and moved away from him, figuring that's what he was hinting at. Jeff put an arm around me and pulled me back against his side. "I didn't say I didn't like it, Kitten."_

_I felt my face heating up, and my smile get wider. When I finally looked up at him, he grinned down at me, and reached up with his free hand to stroke my face. I could feel my heart speeding up; sure he heard it pounding against my chest. Then his face went clear, and our eyes locked together. He put his hand under my chin, and gently pulled my face towards his. When our lips met that first time, my stomach flipped. He pulled away just far enough so he could check the expression on my face. Whatever it was, he must have liked it, because he just smiled, then kissed me again. This time it lasted a little longer, and I felt his tongue tracing my bottom lip. I felt like I couldn't breathe. _

_After that night, we started secretly seeing each other. When no one was looking, we'd sneak in a kiss (or two). Eventually, Matt caught on, and, being the cool brother/friend that he was, assisted in distracting everyone else for a while to give us some time together. One weekend, he even pretended to be insanely mad at Jeff, and convinced the guys to go on a weekend camping trip without him. I never went on their camping trips to begin with, so it wasn't suspicious that I was home too. I will always love Matt for everything he did back then._

_My brother did, inevitably, find us out. He didn't catch us in the act or anything. He just finally started reading the signs. He was upset about it for about three days, and then got over it. It was really kind of a relief when he found out. _

_I wish I could say that Jeff and I were the dream couple who stayed together forever, then got married. But eventually, when Jeff and Matt started getting more popular in the WWF and started traveling more, we decided that it was best if we just stopped dating. It took the pressure off of having a long distance relationship, and we did end up staying very close. I can always go to him for anything, day or night, and he can always come to me. _

_I have absolutely no regrets in life, thanks in large part to Jeff. He was my first real boyfriend. I had a lot of "firsts" with him. So it was only natural that my first break in the WWF was because of him and Matt…_


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

_I can't believe this is finally happening!_ I thought, trying to calm the butterflies in my stomach. I was walking into Crown Center Arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It was basically a stone's throw from my hometown of Cameron. Tonight was my debut in the WWF. I probably would have been 100 times more nervous, if I hadn't been walking in with Jeff and Matt on either side of me, providing me with my usual comfort zone. Jeff put his arm around my waist.

"You scared, Kitten?" I'd always loved his pet name for me, though I couldn't for the life of me remember why he started calling me that.

"Scared? No. Nervous? Hell yes." I replied, glancing up at him.

"Don't worry, Delia. Jeff and I will be with you the whole time." Matt said, putting an arm around my shoulders. The butterflies were immediately forgotten. The three of us had always been close. Jeff had graduated with my older brother, Jimi, who was his best friend. Jeff had always been one of the few constants in my life, as well as Matt. Of course, Jeff and I had also dated on and off for a while. "And the few minutes you're not with us, you'll be with Adam and Jay who love you almost as much as we do."

"I know." I smiled up at him. One of the perks of this arrangement was that I already knew most of the guys since Jeff and Matt had been working for the WWF for nearly five years now. I was going to be working with some of the biggest names in the company, which would have made most people so nervous they'd be throwing up. I, on the other hand, was only nervous about tripping over my own two feet in front of millions of people.

Adam Copeland, AKA Edge, and Jay Reso, AKA Christian, had immediately taken up a friendship with Jeff and Matt when they started, which meant by default, they became my friends too. Jay and Adam were about four years older than Jeff, six years older than me.

"Hey! What's up, guys?" I looked ahead to see Jay walking towards us with a huge smile on his face. I couldn't help but smile back. He has one of those smiles that make everyone around him smile too, whether they felt like it or not.

"Hey Jay." I said. _Holy gorgeous, batman_. Jay was wearing blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt that fit him so you could make out the muscles under his shirt. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.

"Hey Delia." He stopped when he reached us. "Can I steal you for a minute? I wanted to talk about tonight."

I felt Jeff tighten his grip around my waist, but when Matt took his arm from around my shoulders, Jeff reluctantly let go, too. Jay must have noticed because he said, "I won't have her for too long. I just wanted to run something by her."

I looked at Jeff. "I'll see you guys in a few minutes." I smiled at him as I moved towards Jay.

Jeff smiled back, and he and Matt continued on their way to the locker rooms. Jay and I hung back and sat on a nearby table.

"So how's it going, Delia? I haven't seen you in almost two weeks. You avoiding me or something?" Jay said, nudging me with his elbow.

"Oh, yeah, Jay. I'm totally avoiding you. You know I can't stand you." I replied, my voice heavy with playful sarcasm. I looked up at him to finding him giving me his crooked smile. _Good GODS, I love that smile._

"Oh, I know. Trust me." His face got serious. "But really, I did want to run an idea by you."

"What's up?"

And Jay began to tell me the idea that would probably change my life forever.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My debut started off fairly uneventful. As a way of introduction, I was shown talking with Matt and Jeff, with Jeff's arm firmly around me. This had the extra perk of making it seem as though Jeff and I were together. We were very shortly "interrupted" by one of the divas, Terri Runnels.

"Hey Matt. Jeff." She smiled warmly as she turned her gaze to me. "Hey, Cordelia! How are you doing tonight?" Again, almost pointing to Jeff and me "being together", showing that I know his friends already.

"I'm good. How are you, Terri?" I replied, returning her smile.

"I'm fine. Glad to see you here. Now I can have girl-time with someone I actually like." She giggled playfully. "But hey, I have to go. Come find me later, we'll catch up!" She said, moving away. "Jeff, Matt, good luck with your match tonight.

"Will do, darlin'. See you later." She walked off camera, and Jeff, Matt, and I went back to our conversation, and the camera-man called "Cut!"

I stayed leaning against Jeff as the camera-man walked away. "Well, that was the easy part."

"Yeah, next comes being kidnapped by Jay and Adam. But trust me, when you're out there, you don't even notice the camera." Matt replied.

"Yeah, with me out there, you won't even notice the crowd! All your attention with be focused on me." I turned to see Jay walking over to us, followed by Adam.

"Uh, sorry dude, but it's gunna be my good looks that'll have her distracted, not yours." Adam replied, giving Jay a playful push.

I rolled my eyes as the two went back and forth for another minute. "Yeah, we'll see who's distracted by who when we get out there."

"Speaking of, we're on next so we should get going." Jeff said.

Jeff and Matt we set to take on Edge and Christian (Adam and Jay, respectively) in a tag match. Our entrance was last, being the more energetic of the two. As I listened to the Vampiric entrance for Edge and Christian's stable, The Brood, I began to pump myself up in an attempt to not psych myself out.

_You can do this. Just go out there like you always imagined you would._ I bounced on my toes a bit as the Hardy Boyz entrance hit and Jeff took my hand and pulled me out on to the entrance ramp with him, Matt not far behind. We posed on the ramp for a moment, Jeff with an arm around me, banging his head to the music, Matt getting the crowd hyped up. Then Jeff let me go, and he and Matt continued down the ramp in their normal way. I followed them down, getting pumped up by the music myself, and I let myself go. I have to admit, it was exhilarating, and I totally forgot about the cameras in my face and the crowd. Jeff held the ropes for me so I could get in the ring without tripping over myself, and then he promptly jumped onto one of the turnbuckles doing a half twist in the air, and threw up the Hardy symbol. When he jumped down, he pulled me close to him again, my back to his front, and even I threw the symbol up.

Jeff kissed my cheek, and said, "Good job, Kitten. They love you already."

Edge and Christian entered the ring then, so I climbed my way out, shooting "nervous glances" at Gangrel, who hadn't taken his eyes off of me since the entrance. The referee signaled for the match to begin, and the bell rang. I stood on the outside of the ring, cheering on Matt and Jeff, looking genuinely concerned when either of them got put down. I didn't notice that Gangrel had slowly been making his way over to me until he was turning the corner of the side of the ring I was on.

As he stalked towards me, I backed up, my eyes wide in "fear". Jeff noticed what was going on when I climbed up onto the apron and into the ring. He immediately attacked Gangrel, but when he threw him out of the ring, Christian attacked from behind with a cheap shot, then hit his finisher on him. Edge had hit his finisher on Matt outside of the ring, so that basically left me on my own with all three of the members of the Brood enclosing me in the ring. The next thing I knew, Christian grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his arms, then the arena went dark.

"Let's go." Jay said gently, leading me to the edge of the ring, the running me out, ducking down, to the side exit of the ramp. And with that, I was in the custody of the Brood. Not that I really minded. It just meant I'd be spending more time with Jay. _Thank the Gods!_


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When we got backstage, Adam pulled me from Jay and gave me a hug, lifting me off the ground. "That was awesome! The look on your face when David, here, was stalking you was absolutely perfect!" he said, when he set me back down.

David looked at me, almost tentatively, like he thought I was actually afraid of him. I smiled at him, and threw my arms around him. "You are, without a doubt, absolutely creepy-looking when you want to be!" I said. "I love it!"

When I backed away from him, I felt Jay's arms around my neck, and I melted back against him. "So I guess I'm your prisoner now, eh?"

"Oh yeah. I'm not letting you out of my sight." I turned my head to look up at him, only to find his face right there. He had his crooked smile on, which made me smile back.

Matt and Jeff came tearing through the curtains, and almost ran into us. They managed to stop themselves in time, and the worried look on their faces melted to one of complete happiness. Jeff took my hand and pulled on it slightly, almost like he didn't want to rip me away from Jay, but to let Jay know he wanted a minute. Jay hesitated a second, but let me go and took a step back. "Just for a second, Jay, then you'll have your prisoner back." He smiled at his friend. I glanced back at Jay, who nodded, then winked at me. Jeff pulled me into a hug. "I'm so proud of you, Kitten. You nailed it out there." After a moment, he let me go, and I felt someone else pulling me into a hug. I knew immediately it was Matt.

"He's right. We're proud of you. You're going to be just fine in this business." He stepped away. "Y'all should get going. Can't risk a camera seeing you and ruining the whole thing."

I felt an arm around me neck again, and knew instinctively that it was Jay. More than that, I hoped it was. "Let's go, Delia."

I looked at Jeff. "See you at the hotel, soon?"

"Yeah, we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Alright, then. See you later." I let Jay lead me away, his arms sliding from around my neck to take my hand, towards the locker room.

Adam plopped down on the couch, and Dave dropped into one of the chairs. Jay leaned against the wall next to the door, and pulled me against himself. Again, I melted against him. We hung out in the locker room for a while, just talking about different ideas for next week, then we grabbed our stuff, and headed for the exit.

David ran to get the rental car so he could pick the rest of us up at the door. As he did, Jay once again took my hand in his. I glanced up at him. _Oh dear Gods, the man is SO SEXY! _I looked away before I started blushing. _Bad Delia…Jay is a friend, nothing else…just a good friend. Who happens to be very good looking, and sexy, and has a killer smile that makes anything bad thoughts disappear, and- NO! Do NOT go there!_

David pulled up with the car, and we all threw our bags in the trunk. Adam called "Shottie!" and jumped in the front seat, so me and Jay got into the back, and settled in next to each other. The hotel wasn't too far away, but I still managed to find myself in Jay's arms again, resting my head on his shoulders. I met Adams eyes in the rearview mirror, and they very clearly said, "Just kiss him and get over it already!" I looked away.

We got to the hotel and got a suite with three rooms attached like we always had when I traveled with them. Usually Matt and Adam shared one, and Dave and Jay, and Jeff and me, so I threw my things into one of the rooms, figured that would be me and Jeff's room, but Jay followed me in and claimed the other bed, with his crooked smirk.

"If Jeff doesn't like it, he can take it up with me. How am I supposed to keep an eye on my prisoner, if she's sharing a room with someone else?" He said playfully.

I rolled my eyes and said nothing back, but I was thinking, _Oh my God! I'm never going to get to sleep tonight knowing HE is in the next bed! _And then another thought followed on that thoughts heels: _What if he wants to share a bed?_ I shook that thought from my mind. I'd deal with that situation if it came up.

We went back into the living room and both slumped down onto the couch. Adam come in and turned on the TV, and Dave ordered us up some drinks. We put on some reruns of Deadliest Catch, my favorite show, and just hung out. About halfway into the first episode, Jay put an arm around me and pulled me close to him. I snuggled into him, happy and comfortable. Almost an hour later, Matt and Jeff finally came in

Adam pointed Matt to their door, and Jeff looked at me. Before I could say anything, though, Jay piped up.

"Uh, actually, man, I hoping that I could room with her tonight. We have a lot to catch up on and go over." Jeff looked at me, and I smiled at him, feeling my face flushing.

Jeff chuckled a bit. "Yeah, catch up on stuff. I'm sure." He said, shaking his head. "So Dave, which room is ours?" Dave pointed out which room, and Jeff disappeared into it. About 15 minutes later he came out changed into comfortable clothes, and plopped down on the couch next to me. I stretched out, putting my feet on Jeff and leaning back against Jay. Jay rested his cheek against my head, and Jeff draped his arms across my legs. We stayed like that for about 2 more episodes, then I decided it was time for bed. I gave out my round of bedtime hugs, and headed for the room.

Changing into my pajamas, I started thinking about tonight, and how I hoped beyond all hope that Jay would just crawl into bed next to me and hold me all night. I got into bed, and imagined his arms around me, and I fell asleep in minutes.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I woke up the next morning to find myself alone in my bed. I looked over to the other bed, _Yup, there he is. Fast asleep all by himself._ I shook my head and rolled out of bed. Grabbing a change of clothes, I headed for the bathroom. I set the clothes on the counter and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair, usually kept up in a ponytail or in a braid or two, was a wild reddish mess. My eyes looked puffy, as though I had been crying all night, or I hadn't slept good. They were a dull shade of blue. I took off my pajamas so I could examine the rest of myself. I was in pretty good shape. Well, I guess you kind of have to in this line of work, and I'd been working out extra for the last couple of months to prepare for my debut.

I looked at my tattoos one at a time. I had one on my upper left arm, a spider between tribal thorns that wrapped around my arm. On my back, I had a spider web between my shoulder blades, with a spider hanging off of it. I had a butterfly outline filled in with a tiger face on my right ankle, a red dragonfly on my pelvic bone, right side; a firefly with the word "Serenity" under it on my left. I had plans for more, as well. I was starting to see a theme…

I turned away from my reflection and turned on the shower. When I felt the room start to warm, I stepped in. Twenty minutes later, I was out, again, refreshed and ready to take on anything. I brushed my hair and set it in to braids, then I put on the clothes I had grabbed earlier, brown capris and a baby blue tank top, threw on a small amount of eyeliner, eye shadow, and lip gloss, and headed back to my room. Jay was just stirring, which meant he'd probably go back to sleep if I didn't wake him up. I grabbed my wallet and headed back out to the living room.

Jeff was just coming out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel.

"Hey sexy," I said, with a playful smile.

"Hey yourself. Where are you going so early?"

"Down to the bar for breakfast. Join me?"

"Hell yeah. Give me two minutes to get ready."

"More like an hour," I teased. "Hurry up, Rainbow."

He chuckled, then headed back to his room. I sat on the couch. Half an hour later, I was still waiting. Jay stumbled out of our room, looking sleepy.

"Morning Sunshine," I said.

"Mmhmmm…," was all I got in reply. He headed into the bathroom with a towel and some clothes in hand. _Damn it…So much for seeing him naked today…_

He came out of the bathroom about fifteen minutes later. I was STILL waiting for Jeff. _What takes that boy so long to get ready? He's worse than a woman! _Then I realized that Jay had no shirt on. _Oh LORD, he's so hot!_ Jay's chuckle pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Take a picture, Delia. It'll last longer." He came and sat next to me on the couch. "You're looking nice to just be sitting around here all morning."

"Yeah, I'm waiting for Jeff…we're heading down for breakfast." I sighed. "Two minutes my ass."

Jay laughed. "You should have known better than that. How long have you been waiting?"

"About 45 minutes now." I shook my head. "So, you want to join us?"

"Sure. I won't say no to hanging out with my prisoner all morning." He smiled at me, and leaned in close. "I thought about climbing into bed next to you last night," he said, his voice lowered.

"You should have." I raised an eyebrow. "I hate sleeping alone."

"Hmmm…maybe I will tonight."

My eyes were locked onto his, and I suddenly couldn't breathe. We stayed that way for a moment, then he leaned in closer still. _Finally!_

Then the door to Jeff's room opened, and Jeff came out. We both jumped back a bit, and smiled. "Hey, Jay. You joining us?"

"Yes, I am, Jeff. And might I say, you are looking beautiful this morning." He laughed as he dodged the shoe Jeff threw at him.

"Alright, lovebirds. Let's go. I'm starving." I put an arm around Jeff and took Jay's hand, and led them both to the door.


End file.
